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Vitaly
Vitaly is a character in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. Background Born and raised in Circus Zaragoza, Vitaly, the macho Russian tiger, grew up to be the star performer because of his act of jumping through hoops with such grace and speed as if he were flying, constantly pushing how far he could go by using increasingly smaller rings to jump through. On one performance, Vitaly went too far — He set up a ring so small it could be used as a pinkie ring and even had it set on fire. He lubricated himself with olive oil, apparently unaware that the substance was highly flammable. The resulting performance was a disaster: Vitaly (temporarily) lost his fur (which had always been soft but grew back rough and bristly), but worse, he lost his confidence, his dignity, and his passion. He became bitter, stopped taking risks, and drowned his sorrows in borscht soup. And to add insult (or rather, heartbreak) to his injury, Vitaly's wife left him and ran off with a musician. Because their star performer, the very source of their inspiration, had lost his passion, so did the rest of the circus animals, and Circus Zaragoza soon fell into a rut with lousy performances that no one wanted to see. Role in Film Vitaly is first seen on a circus train with Gia the jaguar and Stefano the sea lion. Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman were trying to escape from Captain Chantel DuBois, the mad animal control officer. When Alex and his friends plead with the circus to let them escape on their train, Vitaly is the most resistant, stating that "this train is for circus animals only." Considering how desperate they were, Alex tries to convince the tiger that they ''are ''circus animals. He has a short argument with Gia and Stefano, the former eventually allowing the strangers aboard. When Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman express an interest in accompanying the circus through Europe to their American Tour, Vitaly instantly wanted them gone, stating the circus owners would not allow stowaways, but thankfully, the penguins and chimps (using a human disguise) purchase the circus, which the owners were all too happy to sell. To Alex's horror, the circus proves so inept that the angered audience demands refunds to the point of chasing the circus to the departing train to London. En route to London, Stefano soon reveals to Alex that Vitaly was once their inspiration. The tiger, who jumped through impossibly small hoops to wow the crowd and was always pushing himself to the limit, got burned during one fateful attempt with olive oil and a flaming hoop as small as a pinkie ring. The result was that the circus fell into a rut for a long time. Taking a stop in the Alps, Alex gives everyone an inspiring speech and convinces the circus animals to do an all-animal circus. Vitaly is hostile to the idea, stating the circus had long performed traditional entertainment, but Gia and Stefano manage to convince him to try and rediscover his passion and that "circus always sticks together." In turn, Vitaly concedes to jump through one hoop. However, the night before their London performance, Vitaly has a flashback of that horrible incident which ruined his life and gets cold feet. On the night of the performance, Vitaly intended to leave, thinking the circus wouldn't need him. Alex confronts Vitaly and reminds the tiger of his love of performing and while suggesting he use hair conditioner as a safer lubricant before regaining his courage to jump through the tiny flaming hoop. As a result, Vitaly's stunt is performed perfectly to open the successful show. With that, a profoundly heartened Vitaly becomes a fast friend of Alex. However, the happy moment is ruined by the arrival of DuBois, who reveals that Alex as well as Marty, Gloria, and Melman are zoo animals and demands their custody. The penguins manage to get rid of her, but the damage was done. Vitaly and the others realized that Alex had lied to them about being circus animals and his so-called trapeze act and felt used when Alex admits they'd wanted to join the circus to make it back to New York. As a result, the circus animals shun the Zoosters, and although they got the American Tour, everyone is disheartened. Even after the Four are estranged from the circus, Vitaly is the first to support Gia's proposal to rescue their new friends from the zoo (after learning that DuBois had captured them) and plays a key role in that operation. After the circus animals free their zoo pals and defeat DuBois, the Zoosters decide to join the circus permanently, which pleases Vitaly and the others. Vitaly is last seen riding off in the circus train with the rest of his friends to carry on with their American Tour, singing "Afro-Circus" all the way. Gallery Trivia Vitaly's favorite food is borscht, a type of Russian soup. Or rather, after his fire-hoop incident, Vitaly drowned his sorrows and self-pity in borscht. Category:Males Category:Madagascar characters Category:Tigers Category:Animals Category:Anthropomorphic characters Category:Madagascar Category:Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted Category:Heroes Category:Big Cats Category:Characters with Underwears Category:Superheroes Category:Cats